The first crucial item in the Lord’s move on the earth is gospel preaching. We are stressing not only gospel preaching but also the God-ordained way of preaching the gospel. Today gospel preaching among most Christians is virtually bankrupt. Supposedly the United States is the top Christian nation on the earth. There may be as many as one hundred twenty million Christians in the United States, and many Christian broadcasts are sent over the air waves. However, very few of these millions of Christians have the burden to personally go out to preach the gospel of Christ. This is the present situation among most of the Christians in America.
We may like the matter of abiding in the vine, abiding in Christ, which is found in John 15. We may desire to be those enjoying the unsearchable riches of the vine. However, John 15:8-11 does not stress abiding only; it also stresses fruit-bearing. If we bear fruit, the Father will be glorified. The Father will not be glorified just by our abiding. He will be glorified only if we are bearing fruit. Only fruit-bearing can release the Father’s divine life. When we bear fruit, the very divine life which is in the Son, the vine, is released.
As we are abiding in the Son, we are absorbing the life which is in the vine. We are participating in the unsearchable riches of the life-juice of the vine. Sooner or later, the life we have been absorbing will be released. When this life-juice is released, it issues in fruit-bearing. Fruit-bearing is the issue, the result of our enjoyment of Christ. It is this releasing of the life-juice that expresses God. In the releasing of the life-juice, the Father is glorified.
An illustration of such a release can be seen in the carnation flower. If the carnation does not bloom, then its glory, its beauty, remains hidden. When the carnation does bloom, the inner life of the carnation has been released. This is the glorification of the carnation. We cannot appreciate the beauty of the carnation if it has not blossomed. The carnation is hidden, and the beauty of its life is not yet expressed. Once it blossoms, its life is expressed; its life is glorified. The blossom is the glorification of the carnation. In the same way, our fruit-bearing is God’s glorification.
Some in Christianity may say that we glorify God by doing something good. They do not realize that the Father does not want us just to do good things or just to express Him in Christian ethical duties. He wants us to express Him in bearing fruit for the vine tree’s increase and enlargement. The increase and enlargement of the vine is the Father’s glorification. Have you noticed how particular the Lord’s words are in this portion of John 15? He says, “In this is My Father glorified” (John 15:8). “In this” refers to fruit-bearing. If we bear much fruit, the Father is glorified.
In John 15:9 the Lord Jesus says, “As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” We Christians like to talk about love. We like to say that God loves us. From my youth, I was taught to sing the hymn which says, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Here the Lord Jesus says, “As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you.” What kind of love is this? The Father has loved the Son in the Son’s expression of Him. The Father is happy and joyful that the Son is His expression. The Son has loved the disciples in the same principle. The Son wants the disciples to be His expression. An illustration of this principle is in the book of Genesis. When God created man in His own image (Gen. 1:27), this was an expression of His great love.
God loved the Son that the Son may express God, and the Son has loved us that we may express Him. “As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love” (John 15:9). To abide in His love makes us His expression. He tells us of His love, and then He charges us to express Him. To bear fruit is to express the Son. The Son charges us to bear fruit which means that the Son loves us to the uttermost. What a privilege! What a right the Son has given us that we may bear His fruit. Just as the Father charged the Son to express the Father, the Son charges us to express the Son. He charges us to abide in His love, not just to abide in Him. It is not adequate simply to abide in Him. We must abide in His love.
We abide in His love by bringing Him forth into people for His expression. Our preaching the gospel is to bear fruit, to bring forth Christ into people, making them Christ’s fruit, Christ’s expression. When we bring Christ into a sinner, he becomes Christ’s very expression. Verses 8, 9, and 10 of John 15 are all connected. If we keep the Lord’s commandments, we will abide in His love (v. 10), we will bear fruit (v. 8), and the Father will be glorified (v. 8). When we bear much fruit, the Father is glorified more.
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